I just started playing 10NL, and i dont really understand why people raise preflop. I thought it was to pick up the blinds but i found out it was silly to risk so much to win so little because the blinds never go up.

level

either way, i would be willing to bet that alot of people on here couldn't give 2 or 3 good reasons for it and just raise pf because its "standard" and they see it in strat posts/videos.

why does it matter if blinds never go up? If its +ev to 'steal' then 'steal'

also if you are risking a lot to steal the blinds you probably aren't doing it right... unless you think 2.5-3.5 bbs is a lot

so what are the reasons for betting/raising preflop?

to build a pot with value hands
to isolate weaker players
to steal the blinds
to take the initiative in a hand
etc.

You raise the blind so they'll grow up to become productive members of society.

-Stealing the blinds.
-Getting people to call/raise with worse hands.
-Getting people to fold better hands.

Pretty much the same reasons you have to bet/raise at any other street.

Also, I assume "folding every single hand" would not even enter your own idea of poker, so you're actually asking "Why not just call rather than raising"?

If you just call, people can just call behind you and see cheap flops with trash hands that could flop better than yours. You want trash hands to play with you, as long as they pay sometime significant before they get a chance to improve, not after.

If they raise, say, 3-4bb behind you, then you have the option of folding ( sucks to limp/fold ), calling ( if your hand is good enough to play for 4-5bb, then why didn't you raise? ), or reraising ( if your hand is good enough for a reraise, then why didn't you even raise? ).

As someone mentionned, raising is the "standard". So a better question would rather be, why don't you want to raise?
Sure, you risk 3-4 big blinds to steal just 1.5, but you're not always stealing, and that's the whole point.

Sometime you're putting 3-4 big blinds with the best hand to steal 1.5bb AND to get people to put even more money on the table when your hand > theirs.

played someone earlier who was 67/0, dont think he had a raise button...

for information

The blinds really do add up though, and because you know OTHER people are after them it makes sense for you to attack them + the blinds too, thus poker was born.

Even if the only reason people raise preflop today is because "you're supposed to", you still have to adjust to current game conditions. Have you honestly ever saw a winner who never raises preflop?

Thanks